Riyadh: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has handed a death sentence to Mohammed bin Nasser Al-Ghamdi, brother of a prominent preacher and government critic, for tweeting about human rights.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday, August 24, UK-based Saudi preacher Saeed bin Nasser Al-Ghamdi said, “The Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh had handed his brother, Mohammed al-Ghamdi, a death sentence following five tweets criticizing corruption and human rights violations.”
He continued that his brother, a retired teacher, was also ordered to defend detained Saudi scholars Awad al-Qarni, Salman al-Awda, Ali al-Omari and Safar al-Hawali during interrogation.
Saeed Al-Ghamdi pointed out that the court “did not accept all the medical reports proving his chronic neurological diseases, and did not draw attention to his greyness and ill health, nor to the fact that his tweets are in an anonymous account with nine followers.”
“I appeal to everyone who has any ability to help free my brother’s neck from the rule of injustice and unfair rulings,” he added.
As per the media reports, his tweets focused on unemployment, inflation, and government mismanagement of resources and called for the release of political prisoners.
On Friday, the UK-based advocacy organisations Alqst and the Sanad Rights Foundation revealed that the judgement against Mohammed Al-Ghamdi was rendered in early July, nearly a year after his arrest in June 2022.
Saudi Arabia tops list of Arab countries to carry out death sentences
In its report issued in May 2022, Amnesty International said that Saudi Arabia leads the Arab countries in carrying out death sentences, with an annual increase.
In recent years, several mass executions have been carried out, the largest of which was in March 2022, when the world woke up to the news of the execution of 81 people in the Kingdom.
On July 21, the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights said that at least 64 people are currently at risk of execution in Saudi Arabia, including nine who were minors when they were charged.
